#1929 Figures and Figurines

#1929

Figures and Figurines

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” - Galatians 6:7

A frightful thought, if we only reap what we sow. 

In an Army hospital, when any soldier dies, his fellow warriors-those who attended to her or him all stand when the body is moved to the morgue.  My cousin's lungs were scarred by poison gas during World War I but he came home and continued to work and live a productive life...suffering from the wounds of war everyday of his life.  The worst words I ever heard in a hospital room, the patient feeling the coldness of death as death moved from his feet up his body and he telling me what was happening: "It is over." 

Until you have known forgiveness, you cannot preach it.  Until you have experienced disappointment with the world, especially the failings of our fellow man, you are not ready to face life.  Even God, Jesus, God putting on a tent of flesh and living among us.  The twelve men closest to him, those who knew him best, and one, a thief, for a few pieces of silver betrayed him, two thousand years later, on this side of the cross, a man will not even name his dog Judas.  Peter probably always had trouble hearing the crowing of a rooster, thinking of warming his hands at the fire of the enemy.  God's greatest creation, the mind of a man and yet, men just refuse to think. 

Over the past sixty years, this blind, disabled, veteran has hired many people to work for him.  It is a matter of necessity; there are simply things I cannot do for myself.  Perhaps I have been an inspiration to a few young men but I am so afraid that so many are beyond help.  Our education systems have just become centers for indoctrination and entertainment.  I say this because most young people, because of law, have been forced to go to school but, they really have not learned anything.  And they are a target of their more astute fellow men, who can easily take advantage of them.  The best example I could ever give of this, a young man who worked for me during the day, worked at night cleaning buildings at the university, getting a few hours of sleep in between, he still lived with his mother, who too was a house cleaner.  I know because he took me by to meet her.

He came in one day telling me about buying a new truck.  I said, "I thought your other truck was almost new, were you having trouble with it?"  He said, "No, I just decided I wanted a new one."  On further questioning, I found that he did not have one idea about the business transaction.  The only thing he knew was his monthly payment that was the only thing of importance to him.  The fact that a vehicle salesman had taken complete advantage of him, by selling him a vehicle he did not need, at a price which he did not understand.  And so it goes a nation that has built its business practices around the idol of deception.  Another man who worked for me, who is still my friend and helps me at times, kept his aged (he was about 90) father with him in his home.  Like most of us, as we age, we are no longer the sharpest knife in the drawer-our elevator no longer goes all the way to the top.  His father took his own car, still in good condition, to the dealer for an oil change.  While there, a salesperson persuaded the old man that he should by a new car and so, his father came home driving a new car, not knowing what had happened in the business transaction.  AND, you hear these stories about the fleecing of our fellow man all the time.  "To the uninitiated, everything is obscure."  And yet, as was the case with impetuous Peter, the most encouraging thought we can imagine, a moment of truth, God showed the importance of forgiving.  After Christ rose from the dead on that first Easter morning, "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see Him, just as He told you."  (Mark 16:7) 

You ask me why I know that God loves me, because he keeps putting up with me.  It took a long time for me to get over the pouting stage when someone had wronged me.  The best therapy in the world, the best tranquilizer in the world, learning to forgive: one back surgeon said to me, "Learning to forgive is better than back surgery."  Only God forgets, we never forget wrongdoers but is so necessary to forgive.  Most people cannot believe the things I tell them about property that has walked out of my house.  Right here in this room where I sit, a beautiful antique pedestal table...beautiful lamp...on the table, just walked right out of this room, I didn't even miss it until many months later.  The Veteran's Administration sends a nurse in twice a week to check on me, help take care of me; one stole all my cancer pain prescriptions.  She knew she could sell those capsules on the street for a lot of money.  My VA doctors tell me that all pain medicine must be kept locked...that it is even stolen from patients in the halls of the VA hospital.  It is an interesting concept, figures and figurines, does a person and does a society forgive such behavior: thievery, taking advantage of others, enabling others in addictive behavior.  I often thought that Jesus could have helped us IF in the prayer he taught his disciples, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13).  Perhaps he should also have said, "Help us not put temptation in the path of others."  If I did not have nice things in my house, if I did not have money in the bank, I would not be such an easy mark for the temptation of others.  Do you think God will actually forgive the Madison Avenue techniques used on television and every other form of business in the temptation of today's business world:  fake news-lies-deception...everywhere you look, everything you hear? 

When we think of loving the world, the enticing-tempting things in it we realize early the need for faith to handle our lives.  I believe that faith is a verb, we believers are faithers.  Peter, who walked and talked with Jesus, left us the wonderful encouraging words in his letter, "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy," (1 Peter 1:8)